Show notes: This episode we are joined by John from the podcast, Team Fremont Live. Join us as we discuss TFL’s third anniversary, and as we talk about how sequels to some games manage to kill a franchise. Join us as we get sidetracked by George Carlin’s death as well. We also discuss what we are currently playing, and of course our For Better or For Worse.

Listen to the Show!

by Chris "Lefty" Brown

Are you The Married Gamers biggest fan?  If you are you just may have your Xbox Live Gold service sponsored for several years to come!  Today, The Married Gamers are announcing a contest to see who can promote the name of The Married Gamers in the flashiest way.  Do you have a Youtube video showing off a Married Gamers Boom Blox creation?  Have you carefully crafted a TMG themed map in Halo 3’s Forge?  Has your band created a Boogie Bunnies flavored mp3 that does Mrs. Leftybrown proud?  Think of a way to promote The Married Gamers, and show off your creativity and love for the podcast and website.

The winner of the ‘Biggest Fan’ contest will further show that they are indeed our biggest fan when we will either create or pay for the winner to change their gamertag to a gamertag name decided by our Community Forums (in case on unavailability other comparable names will be suggested).  Furthermore, every year until the next version of the Xbox console is released, that gamertag will be continue to be sponsored by The Married Gamers.  That’s right, a free Xbox Live Gold membership until the next version of the Xbox console ships to store shelves!

From now until Monday, July 28th you can submit your act of tribute to The Married Gamers at our mailbag.  Kelly (Mrs. Leftybrown) will  announce the winner LIVE on our August 2nd recording via our Usteam.tv feed, and it’ll also be available on our podcast the next day.

by Chris Brown

This afternoon, Microsoft announced the release of a new Digital Rights Managements (DRM) tool that will transfer the licenses of previous purchased game content, music video, television shows, and other video content from one Xbox 360 to another.  Movies, available only on the Xbox Live Marketplace as rentals are an exception to DRM Tool.  The above video shows Larry Hryb, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, demonstrating how the tool works.

The process of transferring the digital rights is said to take only a few minutes, as no content is being transferred, only licenses.   The DRM tool can only be used once every 365 days, so if you have had to take your Xbox 360 back to your retail store you may have to plan accordingly. 

This DRM tool will only with transferring the rights from one console to another, meaning you will not be able to sell or trade your downloaded content giving the rights away like an automobile’s "pink slip".  However, once the DRM tool runs, Xbox 360 owners who have purchased a new Xbox 360 as their primary Xbox can now play Xbox Live Arcade games without having to be signed into the Xbox Live service. 

This week we have two titles coming to Xbox Live Arcade.  They are Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm! and Ticket to Ride.  Both of these games can be downloaded for 800 Microsoft Points.

Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm! was developed by Stainless Games Ltd. and published by SEGA of America.  It is considered a Strategy and Simulation game and is rated M for mature, by the ESRB, considering that it has Blood and Gore and Violence.  This game has been based upon the Web series.  It is a highly popular series and is quite twisted.  You will be playing as Lumpy the moose and you must help his klutzy friends, through 10 different scenarios, who are constantly getting themselves in situations that they cannot get out of on their own.  It may not be as easy as it seems since all of these characters are accident-prone.  This is a single player game.

Ticket to Ride was developed by Next Level Games, Inc. and published by Playful Entertainment, Inc.  It is considered a Card and Board game and is rated E for everyone by the ESRB.  This is a game in which you are trying to find the route that will give you the most distance covered.  You are playing in the United States and are going from coast to coast on the rails.  This is a game that is quickly picked up and is quite fast paced.  Points can be collected from finishing the rails and also completing your ticket.  With multiple levels to complete and also the ability to play with up to 5 people through Xbox Live or 4 in your own home, the fun and competition is already built in.  So get on aboard and enjoy Ticket to Ride.

Kelly “Mrs Lefty” Brown

Xbox 360’s game of the month is Activision’s, ‘Kung Fu Panda.’ Kung Fu Panda is rated E 10+, for everyone 10 and under, and a demo is now available in the Xbox Live Marketplace for free.

In the demo, gamers can play as ‘Po’ the cuddly Kung Fu Panda, and can explore colorful locations throughout the East. There are chances to battle enemies, collect coins, eat dumplings, and build up chi. After gamers collect enough coins, there is opportunity to dress up characters, earn new moves, and even upgrade weapons.

In the full-length game, players can play as Po, Shifu, or the Furious Five, and can play locally, or with friends on Xbox Live. The Multiplayer action allows gamers to battle one-on-one, against a large group of fighters, and even play a multiplayer puzzle game.

Kung Fu Panda is available on Xbox 360, Playstation, Wii, Nintendo DS, and the PC. And if gamers want to get a little more Kung Fu Panda action, head on over to kungfupandagame.com to play Kung Fu Fireworks Toss, build up skill in the Training Hall, download videos, grab icons, wallpapers, and more!

Happy Training!

- Mommy DX

Come join Chris & Kelly Brown for our live broadcast.

Just head over to The Married Gamers Ustream channel which has a fun community chat section to discuss and entertain each other while we do "our thing".   The live broadcast begins at 7 PM EST/ 6 PM CST / 4 PM PST / 12 AM GMT

This week we will be Seeing Double.  Join us as we discuss this trend of couples (including us) by two consoles, or two copies of games.  In addition, we will also  have our usual features: currently playing, the TMG mailbag, ‘News On Our Radar’, and our ‘For Better or Worse’ segment.

-Chris "Lefty" Brown

by Chris Brown

The Married Gamers has a few codes to give away to download a copy of the Xbox Live Arcade puzzle game, Roogoo.  In Roogoo, players must guide block-shaped meteors through a collection of rotating discs in order to save the planet Roo.  To enter  into the drawing simply leave a comment to this post with your Xbox Live gamertag.  On Friday June 20th, we will randomly select posters and will send you a message on Xbox Live with the 5×5 code.

We’d like to thank Trixie and Microsoft for the codes.

Summer is here, and if parents are looking for a chilly place for their children to play this summer, then hop on over to Disney’s coolest MMO, ‘Club Penguin.’

Club Penguin is an icy virtual world which includes a whole host of fun activities for kids. Children choose and name their very own penguin, and can join the hundreds of other kids online to play games, earn coins, adopt pets, chat, shop, dance, and even customize their own igloo.

Everyone can play the limited membership for free, which includes a multitude of games as well as the ability to chat and play with others. There is limited access to servers with free membership, so depending on the time of day, there may be some rooms that are full. However, there are three levels of paid membership that allows for full customization of characters and igloos, as well as greater access to servers.

As with all online Disney applications, Club Penguin is a safe place for kids to play. The site is live moderated, and parents choose the chatting restrictions on each account.

Overall, Club Penguin is a ton of fun, and is a great way for children to familiarize themselves with online play. And with everything there is to do on this site, kids will be largely entertained this Summer for a very small price.

- Mommy DX

by Kelly Brown

Lost Cities is a Xbox Live Arcade game created by Sierra Online Shanghai Studio.  You can download the game for 800 Microsoft points.  This card based game is really a brain workout.  It is not a game that you can pick and up play.  It does take more than a few games to get the hang of the game’s rules and mechanics.  This game really does require some good math skills.  Your math skills not up to snuff?  Don’t let it be a reason to not download this game.

Like the title suggests, the goal of the game is for each player to set up their own city.  Players start out with 8 cards with the hopes that they will have the cards that needed to set up their city and move into the positive instead of the negative.  The first card that you set down on any city will set you back by 20 points.  However player have plenty of opportunities to get move back into the positive.  It is with the use of the incentive cards that the math really comes into play because they become the player’s multiplier.

Players can choose to play this game against the AI or with your friends on Xbox Live or in room co-operatively.   No two games are ever alike because you never know what cards you are going to end up with.  

Lost Cities is a game that is ever changing but there are some things that make this game difficult.  First of all, if you are not fond of math, it may not be the game for you.  Secondly, it does take some time to learn how to play the game.  It is definitely not a game that you can download and start playing, there is a stiff learning curve.  Third, the achievements are very few and far between.  These achievements often are a bit complicated with some requiring players to do more than one thing in order to get the achievement.

Overall, this is a fast paced game that will keep your mind active as you plan out each of your moves.  You may have to keep a pad of paper next to you to remind you of what score you have but it is fun nonetheless.  However this game definitely caters to a select type of gamer, one with the patience to master all the various game strategies. 

I give this game a C+.

by Chris Brown

Contrary to the rumor, Telltale Games will allow anyone to download Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People when it arrives for Wiiware on the Nintendo Wii and the PC.   I recently had a chance to visit Telltale Games for a hands-on of Homestar Ruiner, first of five episodes of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People.

To be honest I knew only a little bit about Strong Bad and his zany cast of characters that make up the Homestar Runner universe, so I wanted to see how a newbie to the property would enjoy the game.  Frankly, this looks to be the funniest game on the Nintendo Wii.  The developers at Telltale Games worked very closely with Mike and Matt Chapman, Homestar Runner’s creators, to create a hilarious episode in which Strong Bad has to help his friend Homestar Runner in service of his own self-interest.  I won’t give away the plot, but the situation is quite funny, as is the characters and environment Strong Bad interacts with.  The graphics are good and does a very good job in recreating the Homestar Runner shows.  The Wiimote controls are simple to use, and acts more or less as a pointer to where you want to go on screen.  You also use the Wiimote to point to your menu and inventory items.  The Wii version of the Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People has a special feature where players can take snapshots while playing the game, and then using the in-game computer they can email messages and images to anyone on your Wii friends list.

…read full article…

Last night at a press event in San Francisco, Russian publisher 1C announced that they would be bringing two games to games consoles in 2008-09.  The first game announced was a new console version of the popular flight simulation game, IL-2: Sturmovik: Birds of Prey.  The other console game is 1C’s first internally developed game called Captain Blood.

…read full article…

Once a month here on The Married Gamers website, we’ll be giving away a free copy of a video game to one lucky reader.  This month we have on deck a chance to impress and annoy your loved ones, small pets, and visiting friends with your very own copy of Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol for the Xbox 360.  The show that has ruined so many great classic songs can now haunt your game room with Simon, Randy and Paula lying to you telling you how much you rock Dawg!

To enter leave a comment in this post saying what song you like to sing when alone, then listen to episode 45 of the Married Gamers (available this Sunday) when we announce the randomly picked winner.  You just might be the next American Idol…in your own head.

-Chris Brown

Codemasters and Brickfish are currently running a campaign which encourages people to create a poster for the forthcoming racing game, GRID.  Design a poster that captures the fun and thrill of the racing simulation video game, submit it to the GRID campaign website to enter the contest.  If your poster is among the Top 100 highest scoring entries you have a chance of winning a $1000 scholarship, a copy of GRID, and your poster available to all as a downloadable wallpaper.   Codemasters will also have prizes for the two runners-up.

-Chris Brown

June 3rd! June 3rd! June 3rd!

That is the release date for THE family game of the year - ‘Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures.’ LucasArts and LEGO, the duo that brought you both ‘LEGO Star Wars’ and ‘LEGO Star Wars II,’ team up once again to bring the building block version of the Indiana Jones movies to your console.

According to LucasArts.com, ‘Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures’ will include all the features gamers love about LEGO Star Wars, such as mix-and-match characters, LEGO building ability, an authentic soundtrack, and extensive humor that makes players Laugh Out Loud. And as with previous LEGO titles, the game can be played cooperatively, which means the gameplay is even better when shared between friends.

Incidentally, ‘Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures,’ is rated E 10+, and will be available June 3rd on the Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, and the PC. For those who like to try games before they buy; there is a downloadable demo available at gamesforwindows.com, or if gamers want to get their hands on some virtual LEGO Indiana Jones goodies, head over to LucasArts.com to hunt for treasure that unlocks Treasure Points. There, points can be traded for Indy-themed wallpaper, avatars, stickers and more.

Happy hunting!

- Mommy DX

The concept behind Defend Your Castle is simple.  Heck, it’s the very title of the game.  You have a castle that must be defended at all costs.  In order to do so you must crush, rub out, blow up, make arrow pin cushions, or convert your attackers.   Defend Your Castle first found life on the PC as a flash game, but has recently been re-worked and released from the ground up by XGen Studios for the Wii on the newly launched WiiWare.

Defend Your Castle is a charmingly simple game that has an uncanny knack for eating up your time.   Players must fight back attacking hordes of stick figures with buttons for heads.  The graphics are adorable.  Fluffy cotton ball clouds are held up by yarn.  Your castle is made from construction paper.  Your cursor is a bread-bag clip.  A smiling sun acts as your stage timer as you fight to save your castle from sun up to sun down.  The game looks like it was developed by a third-grader with a very active imagination, and it adds to the goofy ambience of the game.

As stated, the goal is to defend your castle and to do that, up to four local players use their bread-bag clips to grab the attacking hordes and throw them into the air, high enough so that when they fall to the earth they become a pile of crushed lines and one dead button head. The Wiimote works really well with Defend Your Castle with an easy to use control scheme.  To grab an attacker the player simply has to move their cursor to an attacker and press either the A or B button to grab them, next you flick the Wiimote to toss them into the air.   The screen also shows players how to deploy the magical eraser.  With each kill, players earn points.  Those points at the end of each day can be used to ‘heal’ your castle, and of course ‘pimp’ out your castle with paint can that converts attackers into defenders.  Those defenders can man purchased battlements to defend the castle.  Each battlement has different abilities: one is an archery perch, one is masonry, one is a bomb making factory, and the last is a place of magic in which the players can "rub out’ attackers with a magic pink eraser.

The pace of the game can be a little slow at first, which might quell the fun for a bit.  However Defend Your Castle does offer a much faster and hectic Legendary option that will give your wrists a workout defending the castle from a plethora of stick figure attackers.  The normal setting of the game does pick the pace up, and the variety of the attackers make the game compelling with slow and fast attackers, attackers with bombs, attackers with popsicle stick battery rams, and weird bottle cap cyclops.  As you progress in the game the attackers become hordes and the gameplay becomes frenetic.

This is a game that is easily addictive.  In co-op play, players all defend the single castle, but part of the fun is stealing other players kills.  It is so much fun to grab a falling attacker that another player has flung and to steal the points away when you kill the attacker.  At the end of each day or stage points are awarded and it becomes a competition to see who will be the king of the castle.

This is easily one of the shining stars on Wiiware.  We have found ourselves returning again and again to this game and spending over an hour at each sit-down.  The game save system adds enjoyment to the game as we try to see how far into the endless assault we can get.  Yes, the game is a bit repetitive, but the variations in the number of attackers, the speed at which these attackers come at your castle, and the visual style of the game keeps the player engaged, interested, and very very busy.  This game really does what the Nintendo Wii does best, community games that are easy to pick up, easy to learn, and gives hours and hours of fun and interesting gameplay for all different ages.  Kids and adults will love and adore this game.

Defend Your Castle is rated E for Everyone and is available on the Wii Shop channel under Wiiware for 500 Wii points.

Rating: A

by Chris Brown and Kelly Brown

V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack, from publisher High Voltage Software, shows it hand on the Nintendo Wii as a WiiWare launch title.  Up to four local players begin the game with $2000  in chips, each player must battle against the dealer for wealth and even more addicting….achievements.  Yes, the pearl in the Xbox 360 oyster finds some life on the Nintendo in V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack with in-game achievements which add another dimension to how you play the game.  As you complete hands you complete these achievements by winning in different ways, such as winning with three cards or getting a Blackjack. 

The graphics are not too shabby, however sometimes it is hard to read your cards.  Fortunately, if you point your Wiimote at your cards they will enlarge to make them more readable.  While the graphics are serviceable, what is subpar is the generic almost sterile look to the environment.  You play as a generic ‘card shark’ at decent rendered card table in a nondescript room.  You can change the view angles, but we found the various angles are a bust, and it’s best to stick with the generic standard.  Also disappointing is you can use your Mii as a player. 

The game does a good job of using the Wiimote.  To place bets you point your Wiimote at the bet circle on the screen, and then use the directional pad on your Wiimote to change the amount you want to bet.  You can double down or hold by just pointing the appropriate place and hitting either the A or B button on the Wiimote.

Overall V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack is your average Blackjack video game.  Other than making good use of the Wiimote, there is nothing that really reinvents the wheel or sets it apart from any other Blackjack games.  The lack of personalization and the unimaginative environment makes the game lackluster.  However, the achievements do work their magic in demanding repeated replay, at least until you manage to complete the list of compelling challenges.

V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack is rated T for Teens and is available on the Wii Shop channel for 700 Wii points.

Rating: B-

by Chris Brown & Kelly Brown

Show notes: This episode we talk about WiiWare for the Nintendo Wii. We review of recent Wiiware games: TV Show King, V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack, and Defend Your Castle. On our radar this week is Greenpeace’s report about toxic materials in your video game console, and Xbox’s decision to make some changes to the Xbox Live Arcade. Join us as we talk about what we are currently playing, answer our mailbag, and give our For Better of For Worse for the week.

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